Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What do you use to thicken chicken and dumplings? ›

How can I thicken stove top chicken and dumplings? You can thicken this dish by adding more flour, or even cornstarch. Create a slurry with either of these ingredients and milk or water, then stir into your broth base until you get your desired consistency.

Don't Overwork the Dumpling Dough

Stir everything together until the wet and dry ingredients are combined and you don't see any more dry flour. The dough might look a little lumpy, but that's okay! Overworking the dough is one of the easiest ways to end up with tough dumplings.

Keep the pot at a gentle simmer when cooking the dumplings. An aggressive simmer or boiling will break them apart. Keep the heat low and cover the pot so that they steam.

Pizza dough works great for making fluffy dumplings and even for the flatter, Southern-style variation. 8. Pigs in a Blanket: Pigs in a blanket is the name given to any type of mini hot dog or sausage wrapped in dough. Try it with pizza dough!

Chicken Broth Substitute: Salted Butter + Water

If you don't have broth on hand and want a little more flavor than just plain water, try subbing in 1 cup of water plus 1 tablespoon of butter for every cup of chicken broth in your recipe. The butter will help create a richer flavor than just water alone.

Cook them covered for about ten minutes and then uncover for a while to thicken up. They are so good!

A pinch of salt seasons the dumplings and enhances the flavors of the other ingredients. Cold butter or margarine is cut into the flour mixture to bind the dry ingredients together. It also keeps the dumplings light and tender. Whole milk helps create a smooth, moist dough.

Hand-mincing meat and adding more pork belly results in the juiciest dumplings. Traditionally, some Chinese cuisine uses hand minced meat for their dishes. For example, lots of dim sum items like siu mai, pork buns, beef meatball, and more use hand minced meat to control the texture and fat content of the dish!

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the meat or vegetables in the stew, not into the gravy or liquid. If the dough is dropped right into the liquid, the simmering action may break up the dumplings. Also, the dough will soak up moisture from the liquid so the dumplings will become soft and soggy.

Make sure to continually dust the dough heavily with flour as you pile them onto a plate as this will prevent the dumplings from sticking as well as thicken the gravy. It's very important to remember to bring the broth to a full rolling boil before dropping in your dumplings.

Why do dumplings float when they're done? ›

Dumplings and chicken float on boiling water because their density become less than water while foods such as apples and peanuts increase in density after cooked.

Self-rising flour makes the dumplings both tender, and easy.

Earth to Veg points out that using hot water in recipes for steamed or fried dumplings will produce a softer, more delicate final texture in the dumplings' wrapper. This is because boiling water breaks down the gluten in the flour and gelatinizes many of the starches.

From-scratch dumpling dough requires only two ingredients — flour and water — and the water temperature yields different types of wrappers. Cold water is best for boiled dumplings because it causes the flour's proteins to form the gluten that makes dough chewy and able to withstand vigorously boiling water.

If you find that your filling has too much liquid, I recommend draining the entire mixture in a colander. Another trick that I learned from my mother is to add a teaspoon of cornstarch or breadcrumbs to help soak up the liquid.

The cornstarch will absorb excess water, which will then convert to steam, allowing the bottoms to form that crisp crust.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool. Add a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the bowl and whisk until it's blended smooth. Next, bring the soup to a simmer and add the mixture back to the pot. Pro tip: Don't dump in the entire mixture at once.

Fortunately, there is a way to make your chicken and dumplings thicker and heartier in a fraction of the time. All you'll need to do is sprinkle in some dehydrated potato flakes to your other liquid ingredients. Boxes of instant mashed potatoes can be found in most grocery stores, and often cost only a few dollars.